Dying Alone
by MysteriousShadowofDoom
Summary: "I don't want to go to nerd-school." That's what Hiro always said... but that's not always what he wanted. In fact, he would've loved to go to college. The reason why he didn't go to college and ended up bot-fighting was because of his classmates. He's just a normal boy with a huge brain who wanted to belong. Too bad the other kids in his classes didn't see that... (Alive! Tadashi)
1. The Nerd

**A/N: Tadashi is alive, and the movie events with Callaghan being the villain and the fire never happened. However, Hiro did get accepted into SFIT.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**Warning!: Language and Bullying**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1: The Nerd<strong>

**Hiro's POV**

"Hey! Nerd!"

Upon hearing those words, I immediately knew they were directed at me. After all, who else in this school would people have the guts to call "nerd?" Everybody else in the school were all average college students; all big and tall and tough looking. No one would want to pick a fight with them unless they were really ticked off. Me? I'm the scrawny fourteen year old kid with nothing but skin and bones. Easy target.

Most people were on the other end of the campus, near the cafeteria. It's lunch time anyways. And it's just my luck that I am all the way on the other side of campus, near the science labs, the farthest from the cafeteria, by myself.

Why did I have to work on my latest design before lunch? Why didn't I just wait until after school? Mentally, I berated myself. Thing was, I stopped by my lab room after Economics class to continue working on my project a bit more, since I left off in the middle yesterday. I thought I could finish it before lunch, but Tadashi, just before leaving for the cafeteria with the others, came by my lab and had told me that if I wasn't at the food court twenty minutes later, he would personally come back and drag me there and force food down my mouth. You see, I sort of always forget to eat when I'm caught up in a project, so Tadashi would always have to threaten me to get me to eat. But it's definitely been longer than twenty minutes, and I'm pretty sure Tadashi is on his way back here now.

Quickly looking up, I spotted a buff young man coming my way, his face twisted into one of anger. Brown eyes were ablaze and his mouth in a deep frown, his eyebrows scrunched together, his dark hair nicely combed to the side, his red shirt pulled taunt against his skin, showing off his hard muscles. His face was neatly chiseled, proudly displaying his manly details, his hands were balled up into thick fists, ready to punch something.

His name is Danny; I recognize him from my Engineering class. He's the kid who always was confident and bellowed out the answer, even if he wasn't sure. He made straight A's, and was liked by almost all of the professors. He's a sophomore here, and was voted Best Athlete last year, hence the intimidating muscles. He seemed like a nice kid at first, greeting people and respecting the teacher, always polite. However, after two-days in his class, I realized that he was a two-faced jerk. I was walking pass his desk towards the front to hand in my paper, when I overheard him leaning towards a guy next to him, saying on how his friend, Ian, is such an idiot and that he shouldn't even be in this class.

I had looked across the room, and spotted Ian; a lean, black-haired man who was bent over his desk, staring at the paper in confusion and writing down answers slowly. However, his brown eyes were determined. In truth, I think Ian is a really smart guy, he just tends to be a bit slow.

Danny would never talk about professors behind their backs; he would talk about other classmates and his "friends" when they weren't in earshot.

"Hey! Answer me when I talk!" his voice bellowed, echoing through the empty halls.

Danny's voice brought me back to my current situation: trying to avoid getting pummeled. I frantically looked around, looking for an escape. However, my lab workshop was conveniently near the end of the hallway, and Danny was coming at me from the other side. There was an emergency exit a couple of doors down the hall, but that would trigger an alarm. There was nothing that I could do, except to wait for my oncoming fate.

"Uh, h-hey, Danny... w-w-what are you d-doing here?" I asked, my voice quavering a little. I tried swallowing to stabilize my shaking voice. "Shouldn't you be at the café like all the others, eating your weight in food?" I mentally kicked myself when I saw his face getting redder. Why do I have to be a smart mouth?

"Just because you're smart doesn't mean you have to be a smartass," he snarled. "Going and shoving your knowledge everywhere. No one likes a show-off."

My eyes darted here and there, trying to calculate an escape route, as Danny came closer and closer. Glancing around, I saw nor heard anyone coming. Great. I'm alone here. Well, at least no one will hear me scream in pain.

"Yeah, well, no one likes a two-faced jerk," I shot back, immediately regretting it. Danny's face was a nice shade of purple now, and he was only a couple of feet away.

"Even if you're related to Tadashi, that doesn't give you the right to be full of yourself," he said.

Before I could register what was happening, I was shoved up against a wall, Danny's breath was on my face. I quickly kicked at his legs, making him loosen his grip for a bit, and I took that chance to run. Too bad I didn't get very far before I was slammed back into the wall, my head bouncing off the hard drywall, emitting a yelp from me. Danny's hands were gripping so hard that they would most definitely leave bruises on my arms.

I tried to do some self-defense moves that Tadashi had taught me back a few years ago, but a scrawny boy isn't going to do much damage to a muscular man, and I was lying limply on the floor a few seconds later.

Just as Danny raised a fist to punch me, a voice that I knew very well came floating towards us from an adjoining hall.

"Hiro? Hiro? You still here? Come on, bonehead. You need to eat something."

Danny looked panicked for a second before he put on a tough face again. He leaned down towards me and said in a low voice, "If you tell anyone _anything_, you're going to have a lot more than just a couple of punches thrown at you, _buddy-boy_." Then he harshly kicked me on the side and then glancing around, ducked into a nearby classroom, the door surprisingly unlocked.

Why didn't _I_ see that door? Would've saved a beating. Or maybe not.

"Hiro, I promised you that if you didn't show up in the café in twenty minutes I would shove food down your mouth for you, and I _will_." Tadashi rounded the corner, his mouth lifted into one of a small, teasingly smile. However once he saw me on the ground, that smile was wiped off his face and he quickly ran towards me, his eyes brimming with concern.

"What happened? You okay? Why are you on the floor?" He began to spew out answers, kneeling beside me while scanning my body up and down, looking for injuries. "Do you need to go home? Or we can get Baymax to scan you and patch you up. Oh no, wait... Baymax is at home! Dang it, I forgot to bring him here! Darn it. But I'm sure—"

"I'm fine, really," I quickly cut in, pushing myself off the floor. "I just fell, that's all." I quickly glanced at the door leading to the classroom that Danny had ducked into.

Tadashi narrowed his eyes. "You..._ fell_?"

"Uh-huh," I nodded, standing up, trying to hold back a wince as I stood. Guess Danny got my legs too.

My older brother quickly glanced at the floor, then looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "So you fell in an empty hallway with nothing on the floor."

"My shoelace came untied," I lied.

"Your shoelaces are just fine," Tadashi shot back, glancing at my shoes to see them tied properly.

"I tied them back up before you got here."

"You have an ugly bruise just above your left shin."

Quickly looking down, I did see a bruise forming on my leg, just above my shoes and just below my Capri pants. Guess that's why it hurt a bit when I stood up.

"I got that... in my workshop. I wasn't paying attention and accidentally hit my shin against the edge of a table." I answered.

"Really?" Tadashi asked, not believing a single thing I just said.

"Yep."

Before Tadashi could question me further, I quickly grabbed his arm and dragged him along towards the café.

"Come on. I'm hungry. Let's go get something to eat." Glancing back, I still saw the look of doubt in his eyes. "I'm fine, Tadashi. Really, I am. It's just a bruise."

Tadashi's eyes didn't waver.

"I promise I'm fine," I repeated. I rapidly thought of a way to make the situation lighter. An idea came.

"In fact," I stated slowly, catching Tadashi's confused eyes at the tone of my voice, "I bet I can beat you to the café!"

And with that, I took off running down the hallways (even if we weren't suppose to), laughing as Tadashi yelled a "hey!" and I heard his footsteps quicken, catching up to me, both of us sprinting pass doors and classrooms, his baritone laughter echoing along with mine.

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><p><em>"When are you going to do something useful? Huh, Hiro? When?"<em>

_"What? Be like you and go to 'nerd school'? No thanks, big brother."_

I stared at the ceiling above me, the pale moonlight glow shining on the edge of my bed through the thin gaps between the blinds of the window above. Across the room, I could hear Tadashi's soft snoring and the quiet _beep_ of Baymax's charger charging.

My leg was still a little sore from Danny's beating earlier today, but Tadashi had cleaned it up and applied a Band-Aid on it once we got home. Tadashi had wanted Baymax to scan me to see if I had any other injuries, but I quickly said no and had excused myself from the room. I didn't want anyone to see the bruises on my arms made from Danny's hands or the small bump on my head from when I hit the wall. And I didn't want anyone to see my ribs that were apparently bruised either, even if they did hurt. Maybe I should've put some ice on my head when no one was looking though. I could feel a prominent bump on my head.

It was probably around two in the morning, I guessed. We had school tomorrow, and afterwards Tadashi wanted my help and advice for improving Baymax. But even so, I stayed awake, reflecting on one of the many argued conversations Tadashi and I had had...

That night was the night that I finally got to see the "nerd lab" and Tadashi's friends that he had always talked about. I remember that I had wanted to go back to another bot-fight, and Tadashi had tricked me into letting him take me there.

In the end, I was so fascinated with the experiments and inventions and the fact that Professor Callaghan was also there, I had begged to get in. I created these little robots called micro-bots and had impressed Callaghan enough to get a personal acceptance letter from him.

That was two months ago.

Shifting, I turned to my right side and stared at my dark computer screen, wincing a bit at my ribs.

Even now, I still think the university's classes are easy, but I always looked forward after class, so I could retire to my lab room next to Tadashi's and continue on with my own inventions. I was trying to create a flying suit for Baymax, so that he could help scout for victims overhead, making search and rescue easier with a bird's-eye view and giving victims medial attention sooner. Tadashi doesn't know yet though; I want to surprise him.

Feeling uncomfortable, I adjusted the pillow beneath my head.

Tadashi had always bugged me about college, saying to "expand my horizons" and "use my brains for something useful," instead of going bot-fighting all day and having him save my behind.

I retorted saying that I didn't want to go to "nerd school" and learn stuff that I already knew.

Sighing, I shifted the blankets as I turned to my left side, as to get in a more relaxed position.

Truth was, before I graduated high school, I really actually _did_ want to go to college, especially SFIT. It was the best university of science and engineering... and robotics. In fact, I love school. I was always intrigued with the lessons, even if they _were_ way too easy. You just need to think the right thought to solve the problems. Once I got a hold of that, I passed school with flying colors, skipping grades here and there. And even though SFIT may be teaching me stuff I already knew, I was always looking forward after class to experiment on my own. I finally had a place to my own and enough supplies to experiment by myself.

The reason why I ended up bot-fighting and not going to college was not because I could make good money from bot-fights. It was because I always got teased and picked on by other kids.

Preschool was fine, though I spent most of my time reading a book or doodling figures of robots than socializing. But it didn't matter, because when I was three, my parents died in an auto-wreck, and we had to move school districts to live with Aunt Cass. Tadashi had to leave his friends, while I didn't have any.

Kindergarten was when people started to realize that I was a genius, and, after a month, the teachers encouraged Aunt Cass to let me skip on over to first grade, since I already knew the alphabet and basic math. No one really grasped the concept of addition, but I had learnt it in under five minutes.

First grade really wasn't that bad, my classmates actually looked up to me as a "hero" or something. But even so, during recess and lunch, I would always be alone since my classmates were older than me and had already made their own friends to play with, leaving me by myself. I remember sitting on the edge of the playground, looking towards the fenced-off Kindergarten playground area, my former classmates playing with each other and making new friends.

Second grade was the same, except that the kids would constantly raise an eyebrow when I got picked to do something special, like getting to show the class how to solve a math problem or explain the science behind a class experiment.

Third grade was slightly worse, as the kids would seemingly get annoyed at me for always making high-marks and always having the right answer. They also stopped acknowledging my presence unless it was to glance at me with a hateful expression.

Fourth grade was when it really started to go down hill. The kids would either be completely ignoring me or doing little things to bug me, like calling me "nerd" or sticking out their legs and "accidentally" making me trip. On top of that, everybody who sat near me would constantly look at my test and copy when the teacher wasn't looking.

Back then, I didn't really know what was bullying. Yeah, we were taught to always report to a trusted adult if we ever felt "bullied," but the teachers never taught us what _exactly_ was bullying. So I thought this treatment as nothing and didn't tell anyone.

It was at towards the end of fourth grade, the teacher suggested that I skipped grades again and go on to sixth. By then, I really didn't like my classmates, so I thought that if I skipped grades, I could make new friends. Besides, Tadashi was going to be an eighth grader, so we would be in the same school.

Too bad I didn't realize that it only made it worse. I was not only the smartest kid in the class, I was also the shortest. I finally figured out that the others were jealous of me, and thus didn't like me. Plus, my stature made me an easy target.

That was the year that Tadashi had found out that I was being bullied. He was waiting for me afterschool one day so we could walk home, but it had already been thirty minutes since school let out, and I wasn't there at our meeting spot. That's when he heard some yelling. He followed the noise to the back of the school near the baseball field on the black top to see me being beaten by three of my classmates. He chased them away and then dragged me home and cleaned up my wounds. I was screaming in pain the entire time that he was applying disinfectant. After my mini-tantrum I threw during the time that Tadashi had tortured me with that stinging liquid, I had begged him not to tell Aunt Cass or anyone else. I didn't want anyone to worry. It took awhile, but Tadashi agreed on one condition: I go to him immediately if this ever happens again. Reluctantly, I promised him.

I shifted a bit on my bed.

I hadn't exactly kept that promise very well.

As the years progressed, the bullying gradually became worse. I only went to Tadashi if my injuries were too bad for me to treat on my own. By then, I didn't go to school to learn; my goal was to zip through as fast as I could so I could get out of the torture I had to endure everyday and live my life without having to worry about being shoved into a trashcan or a locker every five minutes. That's why when my teachers asked if I would like to skip ninth and eleventh grade of high school, I quickly agreed.

Hesitantly, I lifted up the edges of the sleeves of my t-shirt that I wore to bed, examining the blue and black bruises I got earlier today, courtesy of Danny. They didn't look too bad. If I kept my sleeves down, no one would see them.

Hearing a shuffling of blankets from the other side of the screen door on Tadashi's side of the room, I stiffened.

"Hiro?" came the groggy voice of my brother. "You okay? You've been tossing and turning for a while now."

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine," I muttered back, mentally kicking myself for forgetting that Tadashi was a fairly light sleeper. "I just couldn't sleep."

"You okay?" Tadashi's voice sounded more awake. I immediately knew he was worried.

"I'm _fine_, Tadashi. Go back to sleep."

There was a moment of silence of where I could almost sense his mental debate: let it go or keep pressing?

"Really, Tadashi. I'm fine. I promise," I said, trying to convince him.

With that promise, I guess I finally convinced him, since he said, "Okay then. 'Night bonehead." Then there was a rustling of bed sheets and Tadashi's snores filled the room a few minutes later. I let my mouth kick up into a small smile. Tadashi may be a light sleeper, but he was also quickly able to doze off.

Glancing back at the bruises that littered my arm, I let the sleeve drop back down, covering them.

I sighed, turning on my back, trying to relax and drift away to sleep. I mean, today was just bad luck, running into Danny. Right?

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><p><strong>Well? Good or horrible? Continue or trash?<strong>


	2. Promises

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favorite, or followed this story! You guys keep me going! Sorry for the wait, finals were coming up.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. But the plot in mine.**

**Warning!: Language and Bullying**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2: Promises<strong>

**Hiro's POV**

The words "THE METHOD OF INTEGRATION BY POWER SUBSTITUTION" blared out at me as I looked over the worksheet just handed out.

I was currently in Calculus, sitting at the very front next to some buff guy with bulging muscles the size of my face. He reeked of cologne so bad that I had to hold my breath as I was listening to the professor. Well, okay. I wasn't exactly _listening_.

Why would I have to pay attention to something that I learned already? Besides, Professor Duncan spoke with such a soft, monotone voice that you just _needed_ to sleep. I could even see a couple of students towards the back already nodding off. Some had just leaned back and closed their eyes, some put a binder or book in front of them to make it look like that they were reading, and some just put their heads on their desk, not caring who saw them dozing off.

Then again, Professor Duncan was oblivious to almost anything, so he never saw anyone sleeping in his class. I don't think he even hears the little _clicks_ and _buzzes_ created by some of the students that had their phones out, texting.

I looked back down at the worksheet. Professor Duncan was going on and on about using a method for finding antiderivatives of functions which contain nth roots of x or other expressions. I didn't need to listen to the lecture. I already knew how to do them.

Picking up my pencil, I whipped through the fifteen-problem worksheet in less than five minutes.

When I was done, Professor Duncan was still droning on, except now he was talking about ordinary u-substitution.

I sighed.

In truth, I didn't need to take this class, nor did I need to take most of my other classes. I already knew Advanced Calculus and Statistics and whatnot. But the college didn't include anymore rigorous classes for freshmen and they required all freshmen to take a math, science, and a language arts class. Advanced Calculus was the hardest math class that SFIT had for freshmen, but about seventy percent were sophomores. So, I, a fourteen year old scrawny kid, got placed into a class filled with people four or five years older than me.

Looking around, I saw that while some of the students were either dozing or texting, the other half was wide awake, furiously scribbling notes and glaring at the paper in frustration. Professor Duncan continued his lesson, his back to the students while he slowly wrote each problem down on the board.

Leaning my head against my hand, my elbow on the table supporting my head, I started to brainstorm.

Baymax's suit was coming along just fine. It only needed a couple more adjustments. I also needed to modify the thrusters. They weren't responding to the commands that I had set in the suit. Plus, I had to create a chip for Baymax just for flying purposes.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when I felt something hit the back of my head.

A crumpled piece of paper bounced onto the floor beside my seat. I leaned down and grabbed the ball of paper. It seemed like there was a note scribbled on it in black sharpie. Opening it, my eyes scanned the nine-worded note.

_Smartass. Get out of here. Or I'll make you._

I crumpled it back up and threw in onto the floor. Turning around, I scanned the students for a culprit. But everybody looked bored out of their minds or furiously trying to understand the lesson. No one looked suspicious.

I turned back around.

Two minutes later, another wad of paper flew into the back of my head. There seemed to be another note in sharpie, but I didn't bother to pick it up this time.

A couple of moments later, another ball came at my head and bounced onto the floor. This time, I turned around, scanning the crowd of students. I couldn't see anyone that seemed like they did it.

Just as I was about to turn around, my eyes took note of a black sharpie lying on the desk in front of a thin young man three rows behind me. The marker was uncapped, a few sheets of blank paper next to it.

I looked at the person sitting at that seat. Johnson. Johnson Kurosawa. Sophomore.

He was a mix of Japanese and English descent. His father's Japanese and his mother's from England. At least, that's what I've heard from others. See, Johnson isn't a two-faced jerk like Danny; Johnson picks on _everybody_ that isn't on the swim team. So almost everyone doesn't like him. He holds the SFIT swim record for the 1500 meters butterfly and is mighty proud too. He walks around like he's boss of everyone, thinking he's better than everyone else. Not only that, if you best him at anything, he'll give you a hard time and will stop at nothing to beat you.

Which is probably why I am his current victim. Not only did I have the best grade in this class, I was also the first yesterday to successfully derive a logarithm function that was given by the professor. And Johnson really wanted to be first.

Catching my stare, he gave me a glare that could make ten-year-olds wet themselves.

I quickly turned back around, my ribs from yesterday's beating giving a shout of pain from the sudden movement. I grit my teeth and didn't make a sound.

Guess I'll have to put Johnson on my list of people that I need to avoid. Right next to Danny. Great. Johnson in Advanced Calculus and Danny in Engineering.

Mentally, I went through a checklist of my injuries I got yesterday. The little bruise on my shin is healing pretty nicely, and the bump on my head didn't hurt as much anymore. It was my ribs that would make me hiss in pain. Maybe I could get some ice from the cafeteria or something after class. I just had to make sure Tadashi and the others wouldn't notice.

Carefully lifting up the edges of my sleeves, I glanced down at my bruises. They were a nice shade of blue now, some were turning purple. I let my sleeves back down and heard Professor Duncan say something about linear approximations while the guy next to me lifted his arms to put his hands behind his back.

I nearly choked on the smell of sweaty cologne.

~.~.~.~.~

Walking down the calm and currently empty Japanese Bonsai Garden that we had on the Western side of the campus, I headed towards the cafeteria where the gang usually meets. I was hardly aware of a presence behind me until it was too late.

I felt my arms being jerked behind me and my legs were kicked. A hand covered my mouth. I bit it. Hard.

A yelp came from behind me, my arms being momentarily released. I took this opportunity to yank my arms free, and I scrambled a few feet away, attempting to flee. A leg struck out, making me trip and fall on my face, the gravel cutting into my skin. I flipped over onto my back, my face stinging.

"You son of a bitch!" my attacker yelled.

I stilled. _Danny._

A bloodied fist hit me square in the jaw during my shock, but before Danny could retract his hand, I grabbed his arm, and, using his own weight against him, flipped him over. His head knocked against the ground, some blood dripping down his temple. I quickly stood up.

He struck another leg out, attempting to knock me off again. But I anticipated his move and jumped over his leg, turning my body to run.

I only got about ten feet before I was knocked onto the ground in a flying tackle.

"Where do you think you're going?" Danny's voice hissed in my ear. My face was pressed onto the sandy gravel ground, my ribs smarting and my arms were held behind my back. Danny's weight kept me from moving. Man, he's heavy.

I struggled for a bit, but then realized it was no use. Danny's probably thrice my weight.

"You should brush your teeth. Your breath smells like onions," I said, attempting to distract him enough so I could at least wiggle away. But it was true; his breath _did_ smell like onions.

All that comment allowed was my face being pressed into the ground harder, the little rocks were beginning to dig into my skin.

"Shut up, you smartass," he sneered.

"What did I do to you? I thought you said that if I didn't say anything to anybody, you wouldn't beat me up," I shot back, struggling again in vain.

Danny slammed his weight against my body again, making me grunt from the pressure on my ribs that were gave a shout of pain.

"Then why the hell did your older brother seem to catch on today?" he snarled.

I was confused. "Huh? Tadashi?"

"Yeah, that Tadork. I overheard him talking with his other nerd friends about you being injured. Said he believes something happened to you."

Opening my mouth to speak, he slammed my head against the ground again and continued with his rant.

"I was behind the classroom door yesterday, listening to you and your brother's conversation. I know you said you got that bruise from 'your workshop,' but maybe, when I wasn't listening or after you two went home, you spilled the whole story to your _Nii-chan_. That was what you did now, didn't you?" He growled, slamming my head again, this time drawing blood.

I grunted. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I didn't say a word, I swear."

"Yeah, well your brother seemed pretty unconvinced with your lame story today. Went around saying that 'something's wrong.' Said he's going to find out what. So if you don't come up with a convincing story, your brother's going to be on my tail."

"That's good."

_Slam_. Ow. My head.

"Shut up, you wuss." He leaned down close to my ear, lowering his voice into a small whisper. "I'll have you know that in Robotics class, your brother and I are partners for a project that's a third of our grade. And I could easily get him a really bad grade if I wanted to."

He was right. Danny could get Tadashi a bad grade. Danny was liked by almost all of the professors. He could easily convince the Robotics professor to give Tadashi a bad grade. Professor Callaghan (a mighty respectable professor) didn't teach the Robotics class that Tadashi attends; it was taught by some professor named Collins, so I don't know much about him. All I gathered from Gogo's complaints was that Collins was a very biased grader. He played favorites.

"So you better keep your trap shut, got it? Or your brother's grade is going to suffer," he sneered, letting out an evil chuckle.

I knew Tadashi's grade would plummet, especially if the project was a _third_ of the grade, so, reluctantly, I nodded my head.

Danny smirked. "Good boy." Releasing me, he gave another kick to my ribs, and this time, I let out a small yelp.

Without another word, Danny turned and walked out of sight.

Lying on the ground for a couple of moments, I let myself back up, my body aching and protesting in pain. I turned directions and headed towards the nearest boys' bathroom, deciding to clean myself up before anyone noticed.

* * *

><p><strong>Tadashi's POV<strong>

"Hey, bonehead," I greeted as Hiro walked towards our table, his head hung low, bangs covering his face. "Where were you?"

I glanced down at his shin. His bruise seemed to be healing up pretty well.

It was forty minutes into lunch time for most of the college students. Soon it would be time for me to go back to class, in about ten minutes. Wasabi's class already started five minutes ago. Fred was prepping for a game or something that was on Friday. Gogo and Honey were at the robotics lab, working on their own inventions.

I would have gone with them, but I was worried about Hiro. Hiro was nowhere to be found, and lunch was close to over for Hiro too. I was worried something happened to him and was going to search for him around campus, but Gogo told me to calm down and to give Hiro some more freedom. She said he probably was working in his workshop or talking to a professor or something like that and that I should calm my "brotherly protection instincts." That calmed me down... a bit. But I called his cell at least ten times, and not once did he pick up.

I was just about to get on my moped and find him when he showed up, walking real slow towards me.

"Hi," was his mumbled reply. "Sorry I'm late," he said quietly, completely ignoring my question. He seemed to be saddened by something.

"Something wrong, Hiro?" I asked, my brotherly instincts kicking in.

"Huh? No, nothing's wrong," he quickly answered, his head still down.

The liar-alarm in my head went off. In fact, it had been going off ever since yesterday when I found him on the floor in the middle of the hallway. He said he fell because of his shoelaces, but his laces were just fine. Besides, when I found him he wasn't tying his laces; he was looking at the ceiling in shock and fear. But when I tried to pursue the reason behind it, he quickly changed the subject. So I thought it suspicious but didn't say anything. Besides, he promised me he was fine, so I took his word.

Now, Hiro isn't exactly the most well-behaved child (I mean, with his record of bot-fighting and all), but once he gives his word, he keeps it. The moment the two words "I promise" passes his lips, you can count on him. And frankly, ever since he started to talk at age one, every time he ever said "promise" I haven't found any reason to not believe him. In other words, Hiro keeps his promises.

However, he absolutely refused to let Baymax scan him and last night he was tossing and turning in his bed. Hiro had said "he couldn't sleep," but Hiro's a quick and deep sleeper, so his argument wasn't valid. He doesn't do that unless he had nightmares or has something on his mind. He couldn't really sleep either when... Mom and Dad died.

And in the morning he seemed to be distant and was in no hurry for school. Usually he'd be telling me to hurry up since Hiro always wanted to go to school early to have some time before class to work on his inventions.

Noticing his odd behavior, I asked Gogo, Wasabi, Honey and Fred if they knew anything was up. When they asked why I was worried, I explained yesterday's events. And while Hiro's explanation seemed plausible, it didn't exactly _fit_ for Hiro. I felt something was off.

"It doesn't look like 'nothing's wrong.' I called you ten times but you didn't pick up," I said, worried. "Hiro, you know you can tell me anything, right?"

"Yeah," he mumbled. His stomach growled then.

I reached into my pack and pulled out a six-inch Subway sandwich that I had bought earlier for Hiro. "Here." I slid the sandwich across the table.

"Thanks," Hiro mumbled again, unwrapping the sandwich. "Shouldn't you be getting to class, Tadashi?" he asked through a mouthful.

I nodded my head. "Yeah, but—whoa! Hiro! Are you okay? What happened?" I asked, catching sight of his face.

He had reached for a napkin, but in the process his bangs fell away from his face. I could see that there was a bunch of tiny scratches from gravel or something on his right cheek. There was also a small patch of dried blood at his temple, near his hairline. It wasn't severe enough to require medical attention (they weren't even the size of the tip of a pen), but they were still injuries. And they were on Hiro.

"N-nothing!" Hiro said, quickly hiding his face again.

"Hiro..." I said in a stern voice reserved for bot-fighting punishment purposes.

"Really! I just fell... that's all."

"You said you fell yesterday."

"Yeah, well... I fell again."

My eyes narrowed. The alarm in my head was blaring now.

"I cleaned it up myself, Tadashi," Hiro said, mistaking my silence as a question of whether he needed medical attention or not. "Really, it doesn't even hurt. Besides, don't you need to go to class?" he asked, steering the conversation back.

"But I don't want to leave you here and—"

"Tadashi," Hiro cut in, raising his head and looking at me dead in the eye, "my class is the building right over. And I'm fine. I promise."

Looking into his brown orbs that stared back with conviction and the stubbornness of my brother, my protest slowly died on my lips. Though, I think I saw something flickering in his eyes for less than a split second, but I couldn't figure out what it was.

Knowing that Hiro wasn't going to give in to anything I said, I reluctantly nodded my head.

"Okay, bud," I said slowly, giving in. "But you tell me anything that's wrong, got it?"

Hiro nodded.

I sighed. "Good."

We quickly exchanged goodbyes and then I hopped on my moped, making my way to class; Hiro's promise still lingering on my mind.

* * *

><p><strong>Again, sorry for the wait. But thanks to all that continue to support me. I appreciate it! And thanks to <strong>BrokenWings2602, Link Fangirl01, All Things Animated, EvilKookies, Simple Sky, camitake, Q-A the Authoress, kartoonfreek, Kyriea Blackheart, TigerNinja16, snowflakeangel21, Flamest57, Sabeloid, I. am. me. 2000, regularshow565, QueenKnightwing, ImagiTheNation, Emilykit14, Guest #1, The Golden Marauder, Guest #2, Guest #3, Guest #4, Guest #5, Interchangeable Dissonance, Guest #6, Willow, Mari, Golden feathers Edward, wanderer, lambtastic, Guest #7, bighero6lover, Lary, Guest #8, **and** Jessieklove **for the wonderful reviews.**


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